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World War I, like most wars, was started by
politicians and fought by ordinary men who generally had no stake in
the conflict. They fought because of patriotic fervor or a sense of
adventure, and millions lost their lives as a consequence.

Between 1914 and 1918, nearly 5 million Americans
and Canadians served in the war. While today the two neighboring
nations share a sense of common heritage, language, history and
cooperation, in the 1910s there was a lingering sense of animosity.

The Canada of 1914 was much different from the
Canada of today. It was barely more than 50 years old, founded
primarily by English and French decedents, and had been the refuge of
Loyalists during and after the American Revolution. It was a
dominion of the British Empire, autonomous when it came to everything
but foreign affairs. Its population during the 1911 census was 7.2
million, not much larger than the population of Greater Toronto 100
years later.

The United States had a population 13 times
larger, at 92.2 million strong, and played a greater role on the
world stage. Many in the U.S. felt Canada should be part of the
union, as a natural extension of Manifest Destiny, and countless
Canadians feared annexation. Immediately following the American
Civil War, the Fenian Brotherhood, Irishmen who had served in the
Union Army, conducted raids into Southern Canada in the hopes of
agitating Great Britain. A few years later, Canada had an interest
in purchasing Alaska, but negotiations favored the Americans. The
final blow was the attempt to establish a trade reciprocity agreement
between the U.S. and Canada. The agreement was rejected by Congress
on multiple occasions, and during in the 1911 election, by the
Canadian electorate.

On the eve of the Great War, newspapers in both
the U.S. and Canada were filled with news of the upcoming conflict;
the great European powers were at each other’s throats,
figuratively and perhaps soon literally. How each nation viewed the
war, however, betrayed its interests and shaped public opinion.

This is a tale of two nations and how newspapers
covered the storm clouds that were enveloping Europe. In Part One,
we explore the war’s beginning.

Imagine you have access to a time machine. You
travel to various locations in June 1914 and stop at newsstands to
see what locals are discussing. Newspapers in Canada and the U.S.
are full of ads hoping to snag the tired city slicker looking for
adventure. You could travel from New York City to Niagara Falls for
$10, and Montrealers could trek to the Atlantic shore for as little
as $12. Retailers hope to take advantage of the pleasures seekers.
Summer sales promote the advantages of buying new swimsuits and light
dresses.

There’s riveting news as well interspersed among
the usual crime reports, society pages and car accident stories.
Manitoba is in the midst of a political crisis, the American
Southwest is obsessed with Pancho Villa’s exploits during the
Mexican Revolution, and plague has been diagnosed in New Orleans,
causing concern in the city and surrounding areas.

When people in North America rose on the morning
of June 27, nobody knew it would be the last day of peace, the final
day before the lives of millions globally would be shattered first by
world war and then by the Spanish Flu pandemic.

That day the New York Times reported on the formal
grand opening of the Kaiser Wilhem Canal, which was larger than the
Panama Canal and better able to respond to shipping demands. The
official reason was an increase in commerce, but military operations,
the paper said, necessitated the expansion as dreadnoughts had grown
in size.

“In 1912 there were 1,400 passages of German
warships through the canal,” the Times said. “The vessels
included nine battleships. These figures show the value of the canal
to the German Navy in times of peace.”

A peace that was not to last.

While traveling through Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June
28, the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie were shot and killed by Slavic
nationalist Gavrilo Princip. The shooting had been the second
attempt on their lives that day. Earlier, an explosive had been
lobbed at their car but was deflected. It exploded beneath another
vehicle injuring the occupants.